The FIA World Council made a number of other decisions, notably approving the distribution of the consultation document on regulations for the 2008 FIA Formula 1 World Championship to the relevant stakeholders.

The headlines all say "Michelin teams guilty" but the actual FIA World Council decision in Paris today said very little. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The entire United States Grand Prix debacle is an issue over which the potential existed to blow Formula 1 apart.

The recent days have seen the question of tyre safety bubbling away quietly beneath the surface in F1, notably between the FIA and Michelin. This was sparked by the Michelin tyre problems in Indianapolis.

This morning in Paris, the Formula 1 world will make important decisions. The FIA World Council, a gathering of some of the top club officials in the automobile federation, will decide on whether Grand Prix racing should be ruled by commerce or by the book.

Michelin has announced that it is to contribute to the costs incurred by spectators at the United States Grand Prix by offering to refund their tickets. The company will also buy 20,000 tickets for next year's race and will give them to spectators who were present at this year's race.

If you are mad enough to want to sit next to a Grand Prix driver, you can bid your way to be co-driver in the Dodgems Challenge at the Silverstone Grand Prix Ball, which kicks off the weekend on Friday, July 8.

As all eyes in Formula 1 are on a committee room in Paris, fans of NASCAR can this summer enjoy their favourite sport playing host to Herbie, the free-wheeling automotive film star, which first hit the big time in the 1960s in The Love Bug

There may be huge interest in Formula 1 in India at the moment but that does not mean that the Indians are going to see the racing on television, despite the fact that Narain Karthikeyan is the first Indian to be racing in Grands Prix.

The seven Formula 1 teams involved in the debacle in Indianapolis will meet today in Paris, with Minardi's Paul Stoddart and representatives of the car manufacturers involved in Formula 1 to discuss their plans for the FIA World Council meeting tomorrow.

As Formula 1 looks disaster in the face once again, at the meeting of the FIA World Council in Paris on Wednesday, the signs are not looking good that peace is about to break out and team principals, in addition to the voluble Paul Stoddart, are whispering that if the FIA imposes harsh penalties on the teams there will be war.

The FIA's outline for the Formula 1 rules in 2008, issued just before the current F1 crisis blew up in Indianapolis, called for annual expenditure to be cut from $300m per team per year to a figure of around $30m a year and all manner of technology coming under tight restrictions.

Toyota is expected to conform shortlly that it is leaving the Indy Racing League at the end of 2006. Chevrolet departs at the end of the current season and Honda has said that it is not interested in staying on by itself so it too is expected to depart from the championship.

Grand Prix Tours Inc., which organises trips for fans to Grands Prix around the world, has announced that it will be crediting the cost of grandstand tickets for its customers who attended the 2005 USGP in Indianapolis.

Our spies in the Middle East tell us that Eddie Jordan is the latest person to sign up to own a franchise in the A1 Grand Prix series. The news is yet to be confirmed but we believe that Jordan will run a team representing Ireland.

The FIA has "categorically denied" the suggestion made by Paul Stoddart that Max Mosley told the FIA's most senior representative in the United States, Burdette Martin, that if any kind of non-championship race was run, or any alteration made to the circuit.

The words complete transparency are often used in F1 these days and Paul Stoddart has just issued an account of what happened to him at Indianapolis. It makes interesting reading as the colourful Minardi boss has (as usual) not held back.

The FIA has ordered seven teams to appear before the World Council next week on various charges relating to what happened at Indianapolis on Sunday. There are, it seems, dangers in this course of action which could trigger law suits in the United States.

The last few days have seen considerable argument being thrown around about what was right and what was wrong in Indianapolis. It is worth considering a couple of precedents which will no doubt feature in the discussions in the next week.

BMW and Sauber are to make an announcement today in Munich. It is safe to assume that the announcement will at the least be confirmation of the plan for the Swiss team to run with the BMW engines next year and at the most will be an announcement that the team is to be acquired by BMW.

We hear that the FIA has ordered Michelin to supply it with full details of all of its tyre failures in recent times and that the federation has instructed the French tyre maker that the information will be put in front of an independent technical expert to decide whether or not Michelin's F1 tyres are dangerous.

The Indianapolis Star has reported today that a Colorado resident has 'filed a class action lawsuit against the FIA, Formula One Group, Formula One Administration, Michelin and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway following Sunday's United States Grand Prix.

The thumbs of the fans in the grandstands at Indianapolis were all pointing downwards at the end of a ridiculous United States Grand Prix. Fingers in the paddock will be pointing in other directions as the parties involved try to throw mud at one another about who is responsible for this debacle.

It would be nice if Formula 1 had some form as ombudsman - an independent body which could assess who is reponsible when things go wrong. But that is a dream. There are civil courts which decide such matters and there is trial by media.

Cristiano da Matta was back in his winning ways in the United States of America on Sunday was he took victory in the GI Joe's Grand Prix of Portland in Oregon. The PKV Racing driver, dumped less than a year ago by the Toyota F1 team, took the win from 10th position on the grid.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway shares in the disappointment with the loyal fans of IMS and Formula One that we did not see the exciting race we all anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control.

After the United States Grand Prix we went out into the crowd and asked the people we met what they thought about the events of the day. We found people from all over the United States, many of them having travelled long distances to be at Indianapolis.

Minardi raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but it is clear that team boss Paul Stoddart was not impressed by what was happening. The team scored points but there was no rejoicing in the Minardi pit.

The Michelin teams deeply regret the position that they have been put in today and would like to apologise to all the spectators, TV viewers, Formula 1 fans and sponsors for not being able to take part in today's USA Grand Prix.

Formula 1 has committed suicide in the United States of America. At the end of the parade lap for the United States Grand Prix, the Michelin teams all headed into the pitlane and retired, leaving the huge crowd to watch two Ferraris, two Jordans and two Minardis.

With half an hour to go before the start of the United States Grand Prix there is no sign as to what is going to happen. Our understanding is that if there is no chicane 18 of the cars will stay in the garages and only Ferrari will take up its grid positions. If there is a chicane, so goes the theory, Ferrari will not be there.

It is not the first time in the history of Formula 1 that there have been tyre problems on banked circuits. The same thing happened at the German Grand Prix in 1959 when the F1 teams were in action on the Automobil Verkehrs und Ubungs-Strasse (AVUS) facility in Berlin.

The tyre problems that Michelin has encountered at the United States Grand Prix have resulted in some confusion as to what is going to happen on Sunday. There are, however, a limited number of possibilities of what will occur.

There will be dancing on the streets of Toyota City tonight thanks to Jarno Trulli's pole position for the United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speeway. Trulli gave Toyota a much-needed boost after a difficult time on Friday when Ralf Schumacher crashed and was replaced by third driver Ricardo Zonta.

The F1 technical directors met after practice in Indianapolis on Saturday morning to discuss the problems with Michelin tyres and it seems that the decision has been taken to run the cars in qualifying with higher tyre pressure. After that things are less clear.

The problems of tyres in F1 have been bubbling away for some months in Formula 1 and the crash on Friday afternoon which put Ralf Schumacher into the wall at Indianapolis has precipitated a crisis as there are fears that the Michelin tyres may be a problem.

Ricardo Zonta will stand in for Ralf Schumacher for the rest of the Indianapolis weekend. The Brazilian last raced in China and Brazil last year when he replaced Cristiano da Matta, who had been dropped by the team.

Juan Pablo Montoya topped the timesheets on Friday afternoon with a lap that was a tenth faster than his McLaren team mate Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari fans were able to celebrate the fact that Rubens Barrichello was third quickest and Michael Schumacher fourth.

The McLaren Technology Centre in Woking has won the Building of the Year award from the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, which presents the annual awards. It was described as "the most beautiful industrial building in the country".

It is not rocket science to suggest that should Rubens Barrichello decide that the time is right to move on from Ferrari and take advantage of an offer to be a team leader with another F1 team, Ferrari would probably put Felipe Massa into the second car.

This weekend we should hear that the Jordan F1 team, which is supposed to become Midland F1 in 2006, will have Toyota engines once again. There has been a lot of talk about team owner Alex Shnaider's grand plans but so far we have seen nothing to suggest that he is getting serious about 2006.

If you nose around on the Web, you can find a teeshirt which is designed to resemble an FBI-style Wanted poster. The subject of the poster is FIA President Max Mosley, wanted allegedly for "crimes against F1".

The FIA has issued a list of guidelines and justifications for them for F1 in 2008. The FIA says that F1 needs to cut costs and wants to reduce annual expenditure of the big teams from the current of $300m to around $30m. This is likely to cause much upset with the manufacturers.

Crude oil prices have risen dramatically in recent months as the world begins to worry about the availability of oil in the future and the latest rises are thought likely to create inflation, restricting growth and make current governments very unpopular.

The UK motorsport industry has organused a trade mission to go to this week's Paris Air Show. Organised by the Motorsport Industry Association, the mission is part of the government-supported "Motorsport to Aerospace" initiative that was devised to bring fresh businesses opportunities to motorsport companies.

Peugeot is to return to Le Mans in 2007, planning to win the classic French event with a diesel powered prototype. The project could however face stiff competition from Audi which is believed to be working on a similar project.

There were six F1 cars running up the front. Six F1 cars running up the front, but if one F1 car would accidentally fall, they're be five F1 cars running at the front. And so it goes, a childish rhyme which neatly summed up what happened in the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix.

The Formula 1 Media is generally a fairly docile group of people but at the weekend the press finally took exception to the facilities on offer in Montreal and sent a petition to the FIA, FOM and the Montreal city authorities asking for action to be taken to improve the facilities on the Ile de Notre Dame.

Jordan F1 team owner Alex Shnaider says that he would like to have a Russian and a Canadian driving for the Midland F1 team in the future. The Toronto-based Russian is a naturalised Canadian and would love to see a driver from each country in his cars.

While everyone was concentrating on the race in Montreal on Sunday, the BMW Williams pit had a low-key but very important visitor, BMW's chief financial officer Stefan Krause, who is tipped to be the man who will take over as chairman within the next few years.

Tomas Scheckter has not won an Indy Racing League race since Michigan in 2002 when he took a Red Bull Cheever Dallara-Infiniti to victory. The South African has always been seen as being quick but has been accident-prone. But at the Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night, Scheckter showed his class.

Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in the final practice session before qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. The Finn set the fastest time of the session in the final moments of the action, lapping four-tenths faster than Renault's Fernando Alonso.

The reason that there always seems to be an ongoing fight about safety in motor racing is, in part, due to an event 50 years ago today at Le Mans when the factory Mercedes-Benz 300SLR of Pierre Levegh was caught up in an accident caused by a thoughtless Mike Hawthorn.

They say that Las Vegas is a city that never sleeps and the same can be said for stories of an F1 race in the Nevada city. Formula 1 went to Vegas back in 1981 and 1982 but the event, held in the car park of the Caesar's Palace casino was a flop.

Michael Schumacher enjoys a nice little deal with the Swiss authorities to avoid paying too much income tax. If he lived in Germany Schumacher would have to had over 42% of his income but a deal with the Swiss authorities which began in 1996 means that Michael pays considerably less in taxes.

Red Bull Racing has confirmed that Christian Klien will drive for the team for the next four races and may do the two after that as well. The intention of this is to try to give the Austrian and Tonio Liuzzi more consistency in their evaluation process.

This week Williams has launched a counter-attack against BMW suggestions that the team has not been performing and one has to ask about the timing of the move, given that BMW's Mario Theissen has already presented his plans to the board and the board members are now considering a decision

Newman Haas Racing has named Spaniard Oriol Servia to drive the until Bruno Junqueira recovers. Servia made his debut with the team in Milwaukee and drove to an excellent third place. The team was delighted with the result and has decided to lengthen the deal.

Mark Webber says that drivers are not being consulted about rule changes and says that he is not happy with the tyre rules. Webber said that Kimi Raikkonen's accident at the Nurburgring was not the last accident that will happen because of tyre problems.

According to reports in the British press Tom Walkinshaw is about to become the chairman of Premier League Rugby once again. Walkinshaw held the post three years ago before retiring and handing over to Harlequins chairman Charles Jillings. Jilling is to leave the post at the end of June.

The Bahraini authorities have arrested a tour operator in the city for helping more than 50 people, mainly young women, to get into the country on F1 visas. Visitors who arrived for the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in early April were granted two-week visit visas but hundreds stayed on and found employment in Bahrain.

The Jordan F1 team has been at sea this season with an eccentric new management and rumours that the team could be sold again. Up to now, however, the new group running the business have stuck together but it seems that that is now over with the resignation of Trevor Carlin from his role as sporting director.

While the major open wheel categories in the United States remain fractionalized, the path to the top classes seems to have become clearer as the Star Mazda series supports the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend.

DaimlerChrysler AG says it will spend $40bn over the next five years to revamp its North American operations and introduced new models. The announcement came at the start of a three-day exhibition in Washington DC.

The British Government has a well known paranoia about any dealings with Formula 1, resulting from a scandal over political donations back in 1997. However, there is likely to be some chuntering in motor racing circles with the news that the government is planning to use a new National Lottery game to fund the Olympics.

Michael Payne of Formula One Management will be one of the key speakers at the forthcoming Sports Xchange forum in Singapore on July 4, 2005. The subject of the forum will be "The Commercial Value of Sport in Asia".

General Motors is biting the bullet and slashing 25,000 jobs over the next three and a half years. The company is fighting to reduce its losses and to mount a stronger defence as Toyota challenges GM for the role of being the world's top car manufacturer.

New York City's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics suffered a setback on Monday when plans for a $2bn stadium on the West Side of Manhattan ran into trouble over funding, with a state financing board failing to approve a $300m grant for the stadium.

There is a lot of talk about an Indian Grand Prix but all of it overlooks one key factor: the Indian government does not recognise the FIA's nominated club, the Motorsport Association of India, and remains in support of the Federation of Motor Sport Clubs of India (FMSCI).

Last weekend the famed Avenue Champs Elysees in Paris was turned into a sporting arena (complete with a swimming pool) on the eve of the publication of the International Olympic Committee's evaluation report on the five candidate cities. Tens of thousands of Parisians turned up to watch the fun.

Benoit Treluyer emerged from a rain-sodden Formula Nippon race at the new Fuji Speedway with his first victory of the year. The rain was so bad at one point that the race had to be red-flagged at half distance. The race was then restarted in the rain and the result was declared on aggregate.

Bernie Ecclestone has been answering critics in Turkey who say that the Turkish Grand Prix is costing the country too much money. Ecclestone said that Turkey had "the best deal in F1" and that the sport is not going to Turkey because of the money but rather because "we came here to embrace Turkey into Europe".

Paul Tracy won the Champ Car race at Milwaukee on Saturday ahead of AJ Allmendinger, Oriol Servia and Justin Wilson. Sebastien Bourdais regained the lead in the series with a sixth-placed finish. Tracy took the lead on lap 17 and dominated the event, despite the usual string of crashes on the short oval.

There has been talk for a long time now about the return of Formula 1 to South Africa but the money has always been a problem. However there is good news for the company which is bidding for the event, following the announcement that an investment firm called African Renaissance Holdings is going to be involved.

The United Kingdom has won an important battle in the European Union over the "opt-out" clause of the European Working Time Directive. The European Parliament voted in May to get rid of the clause by 2012, forcing British workers to adhere to rigid working hours rather than allowing the workforce to be more flexible.

The FIA has sent a letter to the two Formula 1 tyre companies with a copy to each team principal, which reminds all concerned of their responsibilities in relation to tyres. The note says that the FIA does not want to feed what is calls "hysteria" on this matter.

Mercedes-Ilmor Ltd is to be rebranded and in future the Mercedes-Benz F1 engines will be built by Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Ltd. The change has come about following the splitting up of the old Ilmor company.

The French Grand Prix continues on its path to attract a crowd of at least 75,000 people to this year's event. The race attracted 70,000 last year and the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile took the decision last winter to bring down prices to attract more people.

BMW has won this year's International Engine of the Year awards with its 5.0-litre V10 unit from the new BMW M5. The 507bhp engine, which will also be seen in the forthcoming M6 Coupe, was picked by a panel of judges from around the world, who praised the engine's flexibility and high power output.

There are signs of increased interest in Formula 1 in the United States with Sports Illustrated magazine this week running a story about Scott Speed's drive to be the first American driver in Formula 1 since 1993.

Paul Newman and Carl Haas are going to need a new driver for the rest of the season in Champ Car racing because Bruno Junqueira's back injuries are unlikely to give the Brazilian much chance of a comeback this year.

These are exciting times for Formula 1 racing with the prospect of an exciting new era just around the corner. The sport may be caught up in its own political battles for commercial control of the sport, but the clock is ticking and there will be change.

Even before he won the Indianapolis 500 Dan Wheldon was looking to a future in Formula 1 racing. His manager Julian Jakobi has been trying to find him a ride in F1 for some weeks as it has been clear since the start of the IRL season that Wheldon is going to be a major player in the series this year.

It has been 20 years since the Indianapolis 500 made it to the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, following Danny Sullivan's famous spin and win victory in 1985. And the last time a driver was the main cover story was back in 1981 when AJ Foyt stole the front page.